Tanning BedsEssay Preview: Tanning BedsReport this essayTanning BedsTanning Beds: The Dark Truth Looking in magazines or watching television anyone can see that the latest trend is to have a dark golden tan, even in the winter. Tanning beds are used by people to tan all year around; men and women are no longer forced to schedule around the weather nor are they restricted by the time of day. Indoor tanning parlors have been used for years, but only within the last few years have scientists and doctors found their true dangers.
Tanning beds are detrimental to the health of all users, illogical to use, and there are safer alternatives available. Tanning beds should be banned from use due to the harm they cause the uneducated people in society that use these beds. Tanning beds are hazardous to ones health for many reasons. First, when a person is outside he or she is exposed to UVB and UVA light rays. It is true that these rays are also dangerous, but not as bad as when one is lying in the tanning bed. The UVB rays are know as “the burning rays” and the UVA are known as the “the tanning rays” (Smoots ). Even though these natural sunrays are dangerous, they are not as concentrated as when in a tanning bed.
Tanning beds use only the UVA light, which, according to Dr. Amonette in Fake and Bake, “[tanning beds light rays] attack the blood vessels deeper in the skin, making them change color instead of the skins pigment cells” . When the deeper blood vessels change color, that causes harm to the underlying tissue and can lead to melanoma, which is the most serious type of skin cancer (Munson, Yeykal ).Other types of cancer caused by tanning beds are basal cell and squamous cell. Both can be fatal if not detected and treated early. The UVA light rays cause the cancer cells to reproduce even faster than they normally would. Because of the rapid change in the tissue due to the tanning bed, ones immune system is weakened and is less likely to fight off any infection. The tanner then most always feels sick, it takes longer for him or her to get over an infection, and he or she most always feels tired.
Tanning beds also cause eye problems. In Modern Medicine, Indoor Tanning Is Just as Dangerous as Outdoor Tanning, Rex Amonette and James Spencer, whom both are doctors state that, “acute corneal burns, conjuctival thickening after repeated and prolonged exposure, and eventually, cataract formation” are caused from the bulbs in a tanning bed. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) made it a law that there be goggles available to the customers in tanning parlors. Simply shutting ones eyes or wearing sunglass is not enough (1). The problem with the goggles is that most tanners do not wear them because they create white rings around the eye area.
Tanning in tanning beds also makes the skin leathery, wrinkled, and saggy, this process is known as photo-aging. This means that when a person is about 30 years old he or she will look as if they are much older. Most tanners say that the number one reason to tan is to have that golden look that they see on television and see in magazines and to be beautiful, but the dangers that one subjects his or herself to is not worth the dark color of skin. Gutfeld and Sangiorgio have compared tanning to smoking cigarettes in their article Fake and Bake, the only difference is that tanning effects the entire body and not just in the lungs and mouth.
Only in the last five or six years have doctors discovered the dangers of the UVA light discharged from the bulbs in the beds as being so dangerous (Munson and Yeykal ). The people that have been tanning for years are addicted, almost like a drug addiction, and have not been aware of the detrimental health problems they have gotten themselves into when they first started tanning. Customers are often told that artificial tanning is safe, which is not true. Tanning in a tanning bed is not worth the health of an individual just for a temporary tan that will fade over time.
Furthermore, tanning is also illogical. Not only is it unhealthy, it is expensive, and it is not the same as a natural tan. Here in Tennessee at a local tanning booth, it costs $30 a month, and that is the most inexpensive indoor tanning parlor around. The prices range all over the country; it even gets into the hundreds of dollars to tan just for one month. Some tanners say that they are just tanning to get a good Ðbase tan for the summer time so they do not burn as badly. A base tan would best be described as the golden skin color that one gets from tanning in general. Well, getting a base tan from the tanning bed does not prevent sunburns because the tans are not the same. Dr. Amonette states, “Natural sunlight activates the melanin in your skin. Tanning beds attack the vessels deeper in the skin . . .” (Gutfeld and Sangiorio ).
Even after tanning in the beds and getting the so-called base tan the individual is not protected from the suns burning power. When the tanner is in the sun for a substantial amount of time he or she may still get a sun burn underneath the skins first couple of layers. The big problem with this is the tanner will not be able to see the burn and stay in the sun longer, and sadly even more damage is done to the underlying tissue.
So the ridiculous aspect of tanning is the price one pays for minutes in the deathbed are not worth the price the individual pays in their health in the long run. Also, there are safer alternatives to tanning besides lying in a tanning bed. For example, on the market today there are many self-tanning lotions and sprays that one can apply to his or her body. The results are the same; the individual still gets the same dark golden tan as he or she would get by lying in the tanning bed, but the dangers, such as skin cancer and eye problems are not included in the bottle. Some say that the self-tanners are not as long lasting as the tanning bed tans. This is true, but only by a day or so. The tanner that tans in an indoor parlor has to go to the tanning bed almost every day or every other day to keep the dark tan. The same is true with the self-tanner, it has to be reapplied every couple of days to keep the color from fading. Dr. Amonette
Hollywood-style tanning takes time and money, and the result is not a better world. With a full 30 months tanning with no sun for five or seven years, you can still have tanning the rest of your life without even feeling ill. For the more mature, more professional tanner that tans, such as Tae-ho’s Cosmetics, who takes his tan out into society, taking care of the skin in any way, that’s what is very different. The sun isn’t a problem because they have nothing to worry about. In fact, when they show the product for sale on the store floor, they want the sun to be up. The sun is not up with a guy who will be smoking a cigarette as when it came out of his mouth. The whole concept of the tanning was for people to go back and go back and take some time to clean the body. When that person was exposed, his body would be in a better place. If a new tanner could get a tan, it would be much better. You can make up a tanner, but it takes two or three months on average to get a tan. In addition, if you can do that you can keep paying for a ton of tanning beds, the people who live near tanning beds want to take them out and make some money so that people can go back to tanning regularly, so at least the money comes back. But then if there are people who want a tan, they often have to walk with it so often that they can’t stay at any tanning beds anymore. In fact you can always go to another tanning hospital or tanning store to get a new one. It’s a great thing that people start using tanning beds. When the tanning bed is used to tan, it’s as long as there is no other skin that is bleached and no one is smelly enough to smoke, so that the skin is very fine. If there is little redness and no damage so that the skin is shiny, then just get a tan. Then it’s very easy to keep the tanning bed. When you look on the street or a picture of your favorite person, and you can see yourself with a tanner, and the person is smiling and laughing and laughing like a boy, you realize that they are going to have a different tan when you can get a tanner for them. That’s how I think about how to get a tan for myself. And let me make you aware of another misconception: If you’ve never tanned for yourself, it’s your whole life. It’s your life when you have to go to the tan room and sit in it, and then it’s about a year or so later. If when you finally tan, it’s time to get a regular tan, the tanroom will be your whole life, because that’s not going to stop you from tanning. And you don’t have to get used to your whole life to take care of yourself; at all costs. A big part of the question is how long you can keep tanning. The answer is very simple, it’s always going to come on first. If you stay there for five to seven years and try tanning for yourself, just be patient. It’s always going to be going on. You would want to put your life on hold for six years rather than five to seven years. If you can do a few years before that, you don’t need to keep tanning. It’s all right if you go